Exciting News

I cannot believe it's been almost 3 months since my last post and that the summer is over.  In early June we traveled to High Point NC to move my parents to Pensacola. They moved in with us while waiting for their new apartment in a senior living community to be ready. They moved to my sister's house last week as my DH went into the hospital for his 4th total joint replacement- his 2nd shoulder. My plate has been rather full, and my blogging has been neglected. 

It in the midst of all this (plus working) I have been somewhat productive in my sewing room.  My big new concerns a quilt I made in early summer.

This is a pattern from Kim Brackett's latest book called Wildflowers. I found out about a quilt contest to benefit ALS.  You make a quilt and sent it in by July 31st.  So I decided to do that and use some fabrics I had been collecting for several years. Kim's pattern is well written (of course) but it's rather challenging as it has a lot of pieces, hand appliquéd centers and very fussy piecing.  Below are some progress pictures I posted on Instagram over the summer.

What I found out yesterday is that out of over 1100 quilts submitted for the ALS quilt challenge, mine was selected as one of 12 finalists!!  I am so humbled by this.  There will be online voting on their website www.hopesanddreams.quiltersdreambatting.com.  

For any of you that would like to vote for my quilt, I would be grateful.  The quilt will be given to someone who has ALS.  

Thanks for reading this far, and for sharing in my good news.

Happy stitching,

Karen 

PS 

I'll post soon about my other projects.

Turn to Page 19

My newest copy of Quilter's Newsletter came in the mail a few days ago.  

A quick check of the cover told me that the pictures of the winning quilts were in this issue.

Turning to Page 19 I found my quilt "Dahlia Revisited".  It is still so incredible to me to see one of my quilts in any magazine, much less one that has been such a leader in our industry for 45 years.

I think the colors are pretty true to the original.

I haven't found a permanent home for this yet.  I may have to re-do some things in my studio.

I hope you can find a copy - it's a good article.  And I still feel humbled to have placed in the top five.  Hope you all are staying warm today - our sun is shining and things have warmed up a bit here.  I think it was 31 last night.

I'm working on the memory quilts today - trying to get ready for quilting.

Happy stitching,

Karen

Green and Purple - The End of the Story

I can now tell the complete story of my little green and purple quilt.  First of all, it has a name, "Dahlia Revisited".  And it was created for a very special reason.  I made this quilt for the contest that Quilters Newsletter was having to celebrate their 45th Anniversay.  The rules were simple, create a quilt that celebrates 45 years of quilting, make it 45"x45" and attach an artist statement explaining why the quilt represents 45 years of quilting.  I found out a few days ago that I was chosen as a finalist and that my quilt placed in the top 5! I've won a great prize package and I found out my quilt will hang as part of a special exhibit for QN at the Quilting Live event in Atlanta next month!

I didn't even know anything about the contest until after our quilt show in April when I was catching up on some reading.  The grand prize was a Bernina - which kind of caught my eye.  I've never owned a Bernina and thought that would be fun.  But I didn't know what to do that would represent 45 years until I did the math.  I made my very first quilt 45 years ago - 1969!!

Here is my very first quilt - simply named "Dahlia".  It's a Lemoyne Star with a gathered star flower in the center. Not a typical pattern for a first quilt - but it must have seemed like a good idea in 1969.  There are 30 blocks, it's a generous queen size, and it's completely hand pieced!  Not only are the blocks hand pieced, but all the sashings are hand pieced.

Lest you think that was easy, you can see here that I had a little bit of trouble.  To make things more interesting, all the white fabric is a sheet.  I guess I thought since the sheet worked so well on the front, I would use another one on the back!!  True story - but remember it was the 70's and I had no clue what I was doing.  (The quilting speaks for itself.)

In addition to having trouble doing the hand piecing,  it seems I also had trouble with the applique.  I wish someone would have told me to match the thread.  Guess I had a lot of white thread lying around LOL!!  

But back to the challenge....  What led to my idea for "Dahlia Revisited" was when I realized that somewhere in my stash there were scraps from this quilt and I was pretty sure I knew where they were.  Yes, I've been saving my scraps for 45 years!  

I searched EQ7 for a pattern and couldn't find anything close.  I also couldn't find anything similar on  the internet.  So I made a Leymone Star block out of my original 1969 fabric and tried to create my original block.  After 45 years, I didn't have a clue how I'd made them so I had to just kind of make it up as I went along.  It's not exact, but it's close enough.  This block does look a lot like a block I found called Amish Dahlia.  Does anyone know anything more about this block?

Well I eventually got the block made and then found lots of fabric from my stash that I could use.  If you remember from previous posts, I agonized quite a while on the quilting, but in the end, I was pleased. 

It's such a happy quilt.  The colors were a little hard to match exactly, and I didn't know what to use for the vine.  Suprisingly, what looked best was the original fabric.  I found a long piece cut on the bias that I had used for the binding.  It was perfect.  

So here they are together.  I am so thrilled that QN thought enough of my quilt to award me a finalist prize (even if it wasn't the machine LOL).  When they told me that these quilts would hang as a special exhibit in Atlanta next month, I realized that "Organic Pink Pickles" will also be hanging as a special exhibit for the NYC MQG DWR Challenge at the same event.  Two of my quilts hanging at Quilting Live!!  It really doesn't seem real.  Needless to say, I am planning a trip to Atlanta next month to see both my babies :)!!

It will be Sept. 11-13 if anyone is interested in going.  I'll be there :).

Thanks for sharing in my joy,

Karen

Green and Purple - Finally Made a Decision

After critically looking at pictures in the last post, I knew the puffy pieces had to go!  I had hoped they would look like trapunto.  I had used wool batting, but they didn't look like trapunto, they just looked puffy!

While trying to figure out what to do, I noticed this little yellow flower.  I decided to copy that as a design element in all the square in a square blocks.  It meant changing thread color for each one, but it honestly didn't take too long and it made a huge difference.

You can't really see it until you get close, but overall this border looks so much better.

The second thing I fixed was the little purple border.  It's only 1 1/2" wide so there wasn't room to do much of anything.  I kept doodling on paper - I really wanted a design where I could quilt a continuous design without breaking the thread or back tracking.  In the end I went with little squiggles, horizontal in one triangle, vertical in the next.  That too went pretty fast and flattened that puffy border just perfectly.

The last thing I needed to fix was the center block.  It too was supposed to look like trapunto - but no such luck.  There was quite a bit of extra fabric where the center spikes were gathered, so there weren't a lot of options except to quilt some lines and try and calm it down.  I'm glad all these final decisions are made and done.

Binding is finished, final pictures coming next.

Happy stitching,

Karen

Blocking in the Afternoon Sun

The quilting is done (I think) and I'm blocking the edges so the binding can be added. 

When I walked by and saw it sitting on the floor in the afternoon sun, I could see all the texture and the different design - made me smile.

I used my walking foot in some parts, but that thing frustrates me sometimes.  I am so used to using the free motion foot and being okay with slight wobbles that I need to balance that out with the clunkiness of the walking foot.  But at least my lines in the outer border are straight.

The echo quilting in the purple triangles is "organic" for sure!!!  But it's staying as it is.

When I look at these pictures, I think I need more quilting in the smaller purple block border.  Any suggestions??

Happy stitching today,

Karen

More Lost Weeks and a Little Green and Purple

Four weeks ago, my husband's only brother had a seizure.  The next few weeks have seen us bring him home from the hospital, hire sitters, get in home health nurses, call in hospice and plan a funeral. He fought a 6 year battle with prostate cancer.  Both the kids and their families were able to come for the service and spend a few days.  My DH is now the only one left in his immediate family.  Here we are after the service showing the kids where their great grandparents are buried.

The day started with a haircut by dad out on the front porch. :)

Kids have a way of making you smile even on a sad day.

And of course they wanted to climb the monument (hope nobody minded).

A trip for frozen yogurt on Father's Day was fun.

My beautiful girls - they wanted to be matching :).

I did manage to find some spare moments to try and work on this a little.  On one of the days when I didn't have to work, and the whole crew headed to Pensacola Beach, in a quiet house, I was able to finish all the stitch in the ditch and the vine and leaves.

I finally got my nerve and quilted the open spaces in the border.  In the end, I went with a meandering vine/feather free hand design. It's slowly coming together as I finish each section.  I've had to rip out a few times.  I think it's what I want until I do some and look at it and then I know for sure it's not what I wanted at all!!  I hope to finish this in the next few days.  Gotta work tomorrow so maybe Tues.  The grands are gone, my house is empty and quiet and I'm trying to find some sort of normal.  The last few weeks have been exhausting emotionally and physically and it feels so good to sit and sew for a few hours.

Thanks for reading and sharing in our family's loss.

Karen

This is the Hardest Part for Me

I know I am not alone.  The pattern is chosen, the fabric is pulled, the blocks are made, the applique is done, the top is completed and then it's time to MACHINE QUILT!!!

After 10 years of getting comfortable with machine quilting on my domestic, I realize that this part of quiltmaking kind of still scares me!!  I just don't want to ruin all my hard work and it's so hard to rip out those stitches if I haven't chosen the right design. I've already auditioned lots of designs with an overlay and while I think I know what will look good, actually doing it is something else.

I am very confident of doing an all-over free hand design and I'm pretty sure that I can do a simple custom design on a simple patchwork block quilt.  But this vine and leaves applique and all this open space absolutely stalls me.  If I was hand quilting it would be no problem.  But I already know my starts and stops skills leave so much to be desired.

So the basting is done and I've been staring at it for 5 days!  I'm just waiting for the nerve to actually just start.

I've made a practice sandwich with some of the fabric to check my thread choices and then I'm going to just start.

Maybe tomorrow.....  I do kind of have a deadline on this so it can't stay like this forever.  

I'm off to work, have a great day,

Karen

41 Years and Green/Purple Part 4

Today is our 41st Anniversary.  We are going out to dinner tonight, but here we are at the reception at the church hall.  Funny how I still remember these people :).

It's always a little wierd when our anniversary falls on Memorial Day.  It's such a special holiday for us to remember.

Here is the latest (and last) step in this little quilt.  Picking a fabric for the outside border.  I added a small green flange.  It's getting close.

Happy Memorial Day to all,

Karen

Green and Purple - Part 3

I've found time to work a little on this fun piece - it's been another crazy week.  After thinking that the 4 corners were too empty, I'm auditioning some applique for the center block.  I think I like it, still considering...

And I've added another 1/2" green border and a 2" purple border.  Decided to add the paper pieced blocks in the corner.  It's getting close.  Last night as I was "studying" the quilt on my portable design wall in the living my DH (who hardly says anything about my quilts) said he liked the colors.  :)  So do I, it's a happy quilt.

We are having a quiet Memorial Day weekend.  It's our anniversary weekend -  41 years ago I married my college sweetheart.  How do the years go so fast?

Happy stitching,

Karen

Green and Purple - Part 2

Still having fun playing.  I've added a 1 1/2" purple border with a 1/2" green sashing.  So cute!!

And then of course, my favorite - mixing pieced blocks with applique.  And so now I'm enjoying some slow sewing as I applique the vine and leaves.

So far it's looking really good :).

Happy stitching,

Karen

Almost Back

I am happy to say that I am almost back to feeling like me!  I've worked this week and it's gone well.  And I've felt good enough to play in my studio - big yay!!  I'm working on a new project using my collection of green and purple. 

I've been wanting to do a green and purple quilt, I think this will be the first of several.  It's an original design and it's another medallion.  Who would have guessed that I would be so smitten with medallion quilts!  Guess I can blame all that on Phebe and Vintage Blooms!

Anyway, I'm having fun playing again.  Plus, I've felt good enough to finish working on a t-shirt quilt.  And I've almost finished the machine quilting!!  I'll share pics as soon as the binding is on.

Thanks for all the well wishes, it feels so good to feel good.  I'm still having tests run, so I don't know anything yet.

Happy stitching,

Karen

Down in the River to Pray

Did you guess this one???  I'm not sure who did the palm trees, but I do know who did the elephant. And mine was neither of those :). The rules of this challenge were - pick a word, pick a color, pick a technique (all out of a bag).  Then, the word had to be in the title of a song, and the song had to be the theme of the quilt.

This is what I wrote to describe my quilt.

I'm not super comfortable with art quilts, and that's what made this a good challenge.  I'd had this piece of fabric for a while and I knew it had the look I wanted for the sky.  Trying to find fabric to represent mountains, water, ground, etc. is always a challenge and I didn't want to have to buy a lot, so I was hoping it was in my stash.  Several different batiks did the job for the mountains.

Next came the trees, shoreline, water.  I was really liking it at this point.

I checked with a friend of mine who's an art teacher to make sure I had the perspective right.

Here you see the bench and the rust colored foreground.  Once I realized I had the title of the song wrong and elminated the bench, I knew that something else was wrong, I just couldn't figure out what.

The next few pictures show the angst I was having with the foreground.  What I finally decided was that the rust was all wrong.  So I went for the grass/pebble look.

Here I was tring to create a shadow under the tree.

When I finally realzied the rust was wrong, I began to just pile on possible choices.  I liked all the other parts of this quilt and it frustrated me that I couldn't get this part right, especially when it was right in the front.

This is when you walk away and just do something else.  Fortunately, I had some time left before the challenge was due so I waited for this quilt to talk to me.  Unfortunately, it didn't talk very loud.

I just pushed on until I had to make a choice.  After days of fiddling with the fabric, I knew I was getting close - or close enough for me.  I still didn't think it looked great, but I was at the point where I needed to just fuse this thing down, quilt it and be done!

It was finally time to quilt - yay!! I didn't feel like it needed a lot of quilting.  I went with just impressionistic quilting - I'm still not sure if I like the quilting or not.  

My technique was embroidery - not my strong suit.  So I decided to just do some birds flying by.

So here it is.  I think my favorite part is the water and the cat.  I love that it seems the cat is patiently waiting for his owner to finish so they can go home.

As always, I learned a lot.  Acutally, what I realized is that I'm really more comfortable with applique or pieced quilts.  I'll keep trying things outside my box, but hopefully I'll feel more equipped next time.

Happy stitching,

Karen